


Jack Frost Nipping At Your Nose

by takemehome21



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 06:17:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8879212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takemehome21/pseuds/takemehome21
Summary: When Jess comes back to Stars Hollow for Christmas Rory persuades him to take a midnight walk around town. Rory has something to share and Jess is more than willing to listen.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is post-revival, the Christmas after 'Fall'. Ignores the final four words and Rory's affair/boyfriend story line because it's stupid. 
> 
> Day 17 of [A Gilmore Christmas](http://alspancakeworld.tumblr.com/Gilmorechristmas) on tumblr.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“You’ve been married for more than a month. Don’t you want to go on a honeymoon?”

“Why would go away when my favourite season is upon us? Who wants the beach when there’s snow?”

Rory shakes her head and takes a sip of her coffee.

“I’m just saying. You can’t enjoy the post-marital bliss when I’m staying in my childhood bedroom.”

“Luke and I have been married for nine years, this was just making it legal,” Lorelai says. “We’ve been living in marital bliss, don’t you worry.”

Rory holds her hands up in surrender and then goes back to typing on her laptop. Lorelai pours them both coffee and sits with Rory at the kitchen table.

“Whatcha doing?” Lorelai sings, leaning over to sneak a peek at her computer screen.

“Writing the book that you don’t want to read until it’s done,” Rory replies.

“Well fine then,” Lorelai pouts. “I’ll just sit here, drink my coffee, and listen to your incessant typing.”

“In a couple of days the suspense will be over,” she says in an attempt to soothe her mother.

Lorelai gasps and says, “You’re almost done? Already?”

Rory hums and nods her head all while typing up a storm.

“My daughter is a whiz. I mean I always knew it but now I _know_ it, you know?”

“Thanks mom,” Rory says with a small smile.

“No problem, kid. I’ll shut up now and let you focus,” she responds and pulls her phone out of her pocket.

When she first started planning out the book Rory didn’t know how she would end it. Would she go all the way up to the present day? Include how the book came to be? End it with predictions for their futures? And even now, when she’s writing about her grandfather passing away, she’s still unsure of what will be the ending.

She glances over at Lorelai and sees her swiping through pictures from the wedding. The smile on her mom’s face is enough to bring Rory to tears. They finally got their happy ending. And then she knows how she’s going to finish the book. The one event everything was leading up to.

But before she can commit anything to paper Lorelai speaks once again.

“Hey, when is Jess coming to town?”

Rory is torn between jotting down a quick note about the direction of the book and answering her mom.

With a longing glance at her laptop she says, “When I talked to him last he said the 22nd.”

“And when was that?” Lorelai asks suspiciously.

“A couple of days ago,” Rory says, clicking save on her document just in case. “I called him for some help on the book and we chatted for a while.”

Lorelai wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and winked at Rory.

“Chatting,” she says, making air quotes with her fingers.

“Mom, chatting is not young person code for something dirty.”

She raises her eyebrows and scoots back in her chair.

“Sorry that I’m not hip to the lingo. Anything can be made into a euphemism these days, don’t blame me for assuming.”

“We’re friends. Friends chat. No big deal,” Rory says with a nonchalant shrug.

“No a big deal my ass! This is you and Jess we’re talking about. He always manages to find a way back into your life, that has to be some sort of deal,” Lorelai says, pointing a finger at Rory.

“It’s been years and years. Jess has matured and evolved into a really good man, you can’t still hate him,” Rory fires back.

“Of course I don’t hate him. He’s the one who inspired you to write this book and I haven’t seen you this excited about writing in so long, honey. We’re not going to get matching tattoos anytime soon but we’re good.”

“Good,” Rory says and then pauses, thinking of how to word her next sentence. “And if you were still on the fence about him, just know that pushed he me into going back to Yale when I took that time off.”

She picked the perfect time to drop that bomb because Lorelai almost chokes on the mouthful of coffee she had and watching her try to swallow without spitting it all over the kitchen is nothing short of hilarious.

“What?” She croaks once all the coffee is down.

“He came to visit me when he was in Hartford while I was living at Grandma and Grandpa’s and we went out and then one thing led to another and we’re standing outside of a restaurant and he’s basically telling me everything I never had the guts to say to myself and something clicked in me and I knew I had to fix things.”

Lorelai just stares at her, mouth wide open, half empty coffee mug hanging dangerously loose from her hand.

“Yup. I figured you’d be speechless,” Rory says after a minute of silence.

“I’m – I just… wow, I had no idea.”

“I know. I didn’t tell you because it was a bit embarrassing. Having your ex-boyfriend call you out in the middle of a restaurant patio is not anyone’s most shining moment. But he knows me and a swift kick in the butt was exactly what I needed.”

“Well now I feel like a piece of crap,” Lorelai says with a huff.

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t too fond of him until recently when he started coming around town more often and all that time he was part of the reason why I got you back.”

“If it makes you feel better he probably wasn’t too fond of you either,” Rory replies.

“Should I buy him something? Like a milkshake or a Christmas ornament that says ‘Sorry I was a jerk, thanks for helping out my daughter’?”

“Two very different options but options nonetheless,” Rory says with a smile. “But I don’t think any of that will be necessary. Just try to get along with him. You guys have a lot in common if you’d just get over that little bit of bad blood.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Rory nods and takes a gulp of her coffee before it gets cold.

“I think I need to go lay down. This is a lot of information to take in,” Lorelai says.

“Go ahead,” Rory says sympathetically and pats her mom’s hand.

Lorelai gets up, coffee in hand, and drags her feet as she walks to the couch.

“My mind is blown!” She yells once she’s flopped down onto the cushions.

Rory laughs and gets back to work on her book.  


* * *

  
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to Rory to get text messages from Jess these days.

Ever since he gave her the idea for her book they’ve been talking almost every day. And not just about her book. They chat about whatever new, not shitty music Rory hears on the radio and which book Jess is currently obsessed with.

So when she gets a notification that he’s texted her, it’s stupid that her breath catches in surprise.

They’re friends. Good friends. Good friends text each other. A lot.

It’s no big deal. Really.

 ** _Jess:_**  Spent two hours staring at a wall willing myself to write a blurb for the next book we’re putting out.

 ** _Jess:_**  Hope your day was more productive than mine.

Rory smiles at her phone and then looks up sharply to make sure Lorelai isn’t lingering in the doorway of her bedroom to make fun of her.

When she sees she’s alone Rory pushes her laptop further down her bed and leans back against her pillows.

 ** _Rory:_**  That’s sad, Mariano. I thought you were a professional.

 ** _Jess:_**  Like you’re so much better? Tell me you didn’t spend the entire day watching crappy Christmas movies.

She lets out a laugh and wiggles her thumbs, ready to prove him wrong.

 ** _Rory:_**  I’ll have you know I wrote multiple chapters today. I was on a roll. Actually, you interrupted my roll.

 ** _Jess:_**  My apologies. Are you going to let me read these chapters when I come up for Christmas?

 ** _Rory:_**  Only if you’re on the nice list.

 ** _Jess:_**  I think Santa has changed his mind about me this year. Finally.

Rory can’t contain her smile and she stares at the text for a minute before locking her phone and snuggling into her pillows with a happy sigh.  


* * *

  
Jess comes back to Stars Hollow a few days before Christmas and just as he’s pulling in the driveway Luke tells Lorelai that he’s going to be staying with them.

“What about his mom?” Lorelai asks incredulously.

It’s not that she doesn’t like Liz, she’s fine, but she’s not really a model parent.

“Last minute holiday vacation,” Luke answers with a sigh.

Rory shakes her head and puts on a jacket and boots to go greet Jess.

“Nice car,” she calls out from the porch. “Big improvement from the last one.”

His lips twitch up slightly as he closes his trunk.

“Thanks for your approval. I really needed it,” he said.

Rory walks down the steps and as he comes up the drive. He shrugs his bag onto his shoulder and she opens her arms for a hug.

They don’t usually do the hugging thing but it’s Christmas. And they are in a better place in their friendship now.

His body is warm against hers despite the cold outside. Her arms come up around his neck and she breathes in. It’s been a shitty year and having Jess here – solid, warm, friendly – means so much.

Jess wraps his arms around her waist and squeezes her tight before pulling away and putting some distance between them.

“Guess we’re housemates for a week,” he says.

“Should be fun,” she says with a smile and turns to go inside.

He follows behind and says, “If your mom doesn’t kill me as soon as I walk through the door.”

Rory shakes her head and lets out a dry laugh.

“She doesn’t hate you anymore,” she says, pausing with her hand on the doorknob. “I don’t think she’ll be making you a friendship bracelet anytime soon but she’s definitely not going to hire a hit man or anything.”

“Somehow that’s not very comforting,” he replies.

Rory shrugs in a ‘sorry I can’t control her’ kind of way and opens the door.  


* * *

  
That night, after Lorelai and Luke went upstairs for bed, Rory finds Jess lying on the couch – his bed for the week – reading a book.

“Any good?” She asks, sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

He turns the cover towards her so she can see the title, _Why Not Me?_ by Mindy Kaling.

“I’m trying to expand my horizons,” Jess says. “This is really good. If you haven’t read it I’d recommend it.”

Rory nods and leans back on her outstretched arms.

“I read her other book and I liked it. Haven’t found the time to pick up this one,” she replies.

Jess closes the book on his thumb so he’ll remember the page and turns to look at her with a shocked expression.

“Rory Gilmore hasn’t had the time to buy a book? This is truly shocking,” he says, overacting just a little bit.

She laughs and says, “It’s been a crazy year. Or two.”

He presses his lips together, reading between the lines. He nods sharply, not one to delve into emotional topics, and sits up a little bit.

“I’ll probably finish this tonight so I can lend you my copy if you want.”

“That’d be great,” Rory says, biting her lip to keep from smiling.

Jess nods and turns back to his book, plunging the room into silence as he reads.

After a minute Rory sighs and it gets his attention.

“Who would’ve thought, Jess Mariano sleeping on Lorelai Gilmore’s couch. With permission,” she says, shaking her head as if she can’t believe it.

That gets a laugh out of him.

“It’s a Christmas miracle. Alert the press, oh wait…” He trails off and gives her a pointed look. “The press is already here.”

She lifts her leg to kick at him softly. It's meant to be a joke but she can’t help but realize that she hasn’t been a real part of _the press_ for way too long now.

Sure, she’s been working at The Gazette but what they do there barely counts as journalism. She covered Barack Obama’s campaign trail for god’s sake. She could have done so much more.

Once she comes out of her own thoughts, she realizes Jess has started talking about something. He finishes a few seconds later and she just stares at him.

“You talk a lot,” she says bluntly. “Is this an unexpected perk of adult Jess?”

Jess smiles and shifts so that he’s sitting upright. He still has his legs stretched out though. He’s going to take advantage of that after spending almost four hours in his car driving here.

“Sort of. More a mix of adulthood and being around you,” he says softly.

He doesn’t look at her when he says it and Rory is shocked to say the least.

“Me?” She croaks out.

“Yeah, you’re my oldest friend. I’ve never had a friendship that’s lasted this long. I’m comfortable around you therefore excessive talking ensues,” he says sincerely and then he looks at her. “Plus your Gilmore ways really rub off on people. It’s weird.”

Rory lets out a laugh so loud she’s scared she woke up her mom and Luke. But then again she doesn’t care because it’s Jess and he’s being open with her and making jokes.

So she smiles at him and reaches foreword to squeeze his arm.

“I know what you mean,” she says before dropping her arm back to her lap. “Besides Lane you’re my oldest friend too.”

He smiles that crooked smile she loves and nods in understanding.

“I never would’ve thought we’d be saying this to each other at 32 after everything that’s happened between us.”

“I’m not surprised,” Rory says.

“Oh really?”

“We were friends first, Jess. It makes sense that we would be friends after.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m thankful.”

“Wrong holiday. Thanksgiving was last month,” she quips.

“Ha, ha,” Jess says. “I could’ve sworn you had better jokes.”

Rory gasps in horror.

“I’ll have you know that was a great joke. If you’re too stuffy now to appreciate it that’s not my fault.”

“I see how it is,” Jess says with a smirk.

“Don’t mess with me, Mariano,” Rory replies quickly.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Gilmore.”  


* * *

  
Rory tiptoes down the hallway, careful not to make any noise that would wake Lorelai and Luke up.

She shouldn’t be awake at 2 o’clock in the morning but she just couldn’t stop writing. And nothing stops Rory Gilmore when she’s on a roll.

Finally, she reaches the living room where Jess is sleeping peacefully on the couch. She pokes him in the chest and whispers his name. But he doesn’t wake.

So she pokes him more forcefully and says, “Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

The annoying poking mixed with her chanting 'wake up' gets him to open his eyes. He blinks slowly a few times, trying to see her in the dark.

“Let’s go,” she says excitedly.

“Huh?” Jess asks, voice gravely.

“Get up. We’re going out.”

It’s then that he notices that she’s wearing her long winter jacket, her boots, and a hat. Even more confused than he was a second ago, Jess checks his watch to make sure it’s actually the middle of the night and not the middle of the day and they were transported to the arctic where the sun doesn’t come up in the winter.

“Rory it’s 2 a.m.,” he says with a groan. “And it’s cold.”

Rory sighs and bounces impatiently on her feet.

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course,” Jess replies quickly.

“Then get off your butt and get winter ready. I have to show you something.”

“And that something has to be outside?” He mutters as he throws the blankets off himself and sits up.

“Don’t worry, Grumpy. It’s worth it,” Rory says and walks to the entryway to get his jacket out of the closet for him.

After she wrestles him into his jacket and boots, they finally make it outside and Rory can barely feel the cold with how excited she is.

They walk in silence into town and it’s comfortable. They twinkle lights are on and the snow people are on display, ready for judging.

“It’s not very environmentally friendly to have the twinkle lights on all night,” Jess says, voice muffled by his scarf. “Shame on Taylor.”

“I dare you to tell him that,” Rory says with a smirk.

Jess scoffs and shakes his head. He’s not getting into it with Taylor, Jess would never win even if he were right.

“C’mon. Don’t I deserve to see a Jess-Taylor showdown at least once in my life?”

She pouts at him and Jess laughs at the absurdity of the conversation.

“There’s still time.”

They reach the gazebo and Rory clears off a step for them to sit on. It’s chilly and Jess shivers once he sits down.

“I have something to show you,” she says.

“The town? I’ve seen it before. Many times,” he quips.

Rory bumps her shoulder against his and unzips her jacket, pulling something out from inside. Jess hopes it’s a thermos of coffee but it looks more like paper.

“It’s done,” she says and hands him a stack of paper that says ‘Gilmore Girls’ on the front.

His mouth opens as he takes the finished copy of her book in his hands.

“It’s unedited though. I just printed the final chapter before I woke you up.”

Jess shakes his head in disbelief. He always knew she could do it but this was so fast even for Rory.

“Wow, that’s fantastic. I can’t wait to read it and see it in bookstores all over the country,” he says and looks away from the paper to gaze at her. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks Jess,” she says and smiles brightly at him. “I really couldn’t have done this without you.”

He shrugs as if it’s no big deal that he gave her the idea and helped her get her mojo back.

“Open it.”

He does, flipping the cover back to reveal the dedication page.

_For Jess, the one who set this whole thing into motion and to whom I am eternally grateful for his support, kindness, and friendship._

Rory actually sees Jess blush as he takes in her words. It may be from sitting out in the cold too long but she like to think it’s because of her dedication.

“I – wow, thank you,” he says with a bit of trouble.

It’s fun to see Jess stumble for his words. He usually so sure around her.

“I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m shocked,” he continues.

“I wouldn’t get too jazzed about it. The book could be crap and then everyone will know that you inspired this crappy novel.”

He lets out a dry laugh and shakes his head. She’s using a joking tone but he knows she’s actually worried that what she has written might not be good.

“Nothing you write is crap, Rory.”

“And how do you know that?”

Jess shrugs, nonchalant, and says, “I’ve kept up with your stuff. Hard not to when Luke takes every opportunity to promote your articles.”

Rory smiles and then presses her lips together to contain it. Then she stands and offers Jess her hand.

“Let’s go,” she says. “My face is about to fall off.”

He hums in agreement and takes her hand, pulls himself up with it.

On the way back home, they walk arm in arm, mostly for warmth but also because it’s them.

Once they’re safely inside and no longer freezing, Jess hands Rory back her pages.

“Can’t wait to compete with you for that number one spot on the best seller’s list,” he says.

Rory throws her head back laughing, he always knows just what to say to make her laugh.

But while her head is back, her eyes catch on a sprig of mistletoe tapped to the ceiling. She keeps her eyes on it for a minute and Jess notices what she’s staring at.

He lets out a dry laugh when his eyes find it.

“Never thought this would happen,” he says.

“We go crazy for all things Christmas around here. Sorry.”

Jess nods like he’s making up his mind and then before Rory can do anything he’s leaning in.

And at the last second he turns to kiss her cold cheek. He stays there for a few seconds and then pulls away slowly.

“Goodnight Rory.”

“Night, Jess,” she whispers.

And then he walks into the living room and she’s alone, standing in the foyer, cheeks warm and eyes wide.  


* * *

  
That morning, once the sun is up and Jess is finally warm, Lorelai corners him in the kitchen while he’s pouring himself a glass of water.

For a second he thinks he’s about to be punched.

But she surprises him.

“I found out some interesting stuff about you, Jess.”

The way she’s standing, hand on hip, eyebrows raised, still has him a bit scared.

“And what would that be?” He asks, taking a sip of his water.

“A little birdie told me that you gave Rory the idea for her book and also that you pushed her towards going back to Yale.”

“It was all stuff she wanted to do. I just got the ball rolling, I guess.”

At that Lorelai smiles.

“But nonetheless, thank you for all you’ve done for her. You always seem to pop up at the right moments.”

“Well hopefully there’s no more popping. I’m applying for a more permanent position,” he says.

“Looks like we finally agree on something,” Lorelai says with a smile.

Then she does the unexpected and hugs him. Jess pats her on the back briefly, and it’s awkward but a step forward.

Just then Rory comes in and snaps a picture with her phone.

“This is next year’s Christmas card!” She shouts and jumps up and down like a little kid.

Lorelai and Jess back away from each other and the awkward air around them. Then Jess turns towards Rory and says, “Planning on keeping me around Gilmore?”

“You might as well just become a permanent fixture in our lives. You do have a habit of reappearing, so…” She trails off with a smile.

“As you wish,” Jess says with a smile just as bright as Rory’s.


End file.
